Even as investors in emu farms are caught in a trap, there was some ray of hope for depositors who had lost money to other fraudulent schemes in Tamil Nadu.
The Home Department has issued notifications attaching properties of as many as 11 companies/chit funds that had gone bust in recent years in the State.
The decision to attach the movable and immovable properties including cash balance in bank accounts and subsisting insurance policies was taken as per Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1997. The control of the properties will now be transferred to the Competent Authority (the respective District Revenue Officers) who can take steps to liquidate the assets and settle the money to the depositors on a pro-rata basis.
Among the firms whose properties have been attached include the Chennai-based JBJ City Developers Limited, which was involved in a major statewide real estate fraud, and private companies in Coimbatore, Erode, Namakkal Cuddalore, Kanyakumari, Virudhunagar districts.
“Only in the case of JBJ City Developers, sleuths of the Economic Offences Wing were able to locate several properties owned by the company’s promoters and get them attached. The company had invested heavily in real estate and acquired vast tracts of land in different parts of the State. But in some of the cases, the value of the assets recovered and attached may not be sufficient to even repay 10 per cent of the depositors’ money,” a senior police officer said.
In the case of JBJ City Developers, agricultural land and housing plots in Tiruvallur, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts; cash deposits, insurance policies and five vehicles including cars have been seized and attached.
The list of attached inventory for the Erode-based Annai Info Tech is interesting. The attached movable properties of the firm comprises among other things a colour television set, DVD player, sofa set, refrigerator, gas cylinder, wet grinder, a baby cycle and even a plastic stool and two plastic chairs. “This is because in the case of private companies all identifiable properties including household items belonging to its owner/s and their family members are attached,” the officer explained.
The other firms in the western region, whose properties were attached, are the M/s Keyes Mercantile and Seshu Onfle Info Tech Private Limited in Coimbatore and M/s VSJ Marketing Private Limited in Namakkal district.
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